A pilot and his passenger had a lucky escape after their light plane crashed on Tomahawk Beach yesterday afternoon after ''spluttering'' over the city.

Home and business owners were mopping up yesterday ready to assess the damage after an hour long thunderstorm hammered Alexandra.

Louise Richardson's kids are so charmed by scenery and history they manage to put down their devices for a while.

It has been a "bad and very sad year already" for aviation in the south, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

The problem of wilding pines spreading through the McKenzie Basin and Upper Waitaki Valley is a hole into which government money has poured, and yet the trees persist.

Tributes are flowing in today for two of New Zealand's most experienced Cessna pilots who died in a horror crash that also claimed the lives of their two children.

Four bodies - believed to be from the same family - were last night recovered from the wreckage of a light aircraft near Wanaka.

Police have recovered four bodies from a light plane that crashed near Wanaka.

A shopping company is being investigated over revelations some of its door-to-door staff regularly visit beneficiaries in a Dunedin boarding house.

The Dunedin City Council's group debt has dropped by more than $25 million on the back of stronger results by its companies, new figures show.

The company running Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium is promising a "completely different ball game" despite confirming another $1 million loss.

Our ancestors would have ventured deeper into our back country if they'd been able to do so in a powerful jetboat, writes Lisa Scott.

Ruby Jay Marris, the five year-old killed in a crash involving a foreign driver in Otago, has been remembered as “cherished and loved” and a "fun-loving princess".

Six60's return to Dunedin's student quarter was marred when a man watching the gig suffered moderate to serious injuries when he fell from a roof.

''Everyone just ran and glass showered down on to the road.'' Exploding glass caused a shower of fragments onto Dunedin's main street yesterday.

The 5-year-old Oamaru girl killed in a crash in North Otago on Saturday has been named by police.

Government inaction has been blamed for "driving the tourist road toll" up, following two crashes involving Chinese visitors over the weekend.

A 32-year-old Chinese tourist will appear in court today after a 5-year-old Oamaru girl was killed in a North Otago crash on Saturday afternoon.

Aviation businesses face an uncertain wait and the prospect of financial losses after the grounding of the type of helicopter involved in a fatal crash last week.

A motivational speaker who lost his legs in a train accident as child has begun cycling the Central Otago Rail Trail this weekend.

A five-year-old girl died in a fatal crash in North Otago last night.

Two people have been injured in a head-on collision on a country road.

Four men were jailed for at least 17 years for murdering a farmhand in North Otago but sentencing marred by hurling of abuse.

Most of the 25 cats owned by Invercargill woman Averil Gardiner have been rehomed to meet a court's deadline.

Dunedin residents are angry after they lost power for eight hours a week earlier than expected - saying the power company's attitude to the mistake was 'cavalier'.

An annual party at a sponsored student flat has been cancelled after more than 3000 people indicated they would attend.

Kiwi fugitive Paul Bennett has appeared in a Sydney court today and entered no plea after 10 months on the run ended in Australia last night.